Janice Lintz teaches you how to be heard by people who don’t want to listen

Who do you reach out to when something needs to get done, when something is broken it needs repair, or when a company isn't doing what they're supposed to. If you're like most people, reaching out is just a generous way of saying sending an email into the.

Ether and hope for the best.

It doesn't usually work, it's frustrating, and it's a big waste of time. But Jannislintz is not most people. When she wants something done, she writes a letter to the Queen. No seriously. When she noticed that the hearing access signage at Buckingham Palace was incorrect, she didn't fill out a contact us form on a website, she wrote a letter

I do.

I go right to the top.

I go to heads of companies, see heads of states, heads of governments, heads of corporations, agencies, everyone. It is much easier, more efficient to go to the head of the decision maker who controls the purse strings than to work your way up from the bottom.

Plus, if you work your way up.

From the bottom, people don't appreciate when you go above their head. When you start at the top and you're directed to speak to someone, then you're not going over their head, but they now have authority to accomplish the task. It's a much different position, and people don't like when you go over their head.

They certainly don't do they.

Now when you say going straight to the top, you like really made it. Can you tell me about writing to the Queen?

Years ago?

We were at Buckingham Palace and the sign was incorrect. I tried explaining the problem with the sign for hearing access not being the correct symbol, and it was clear the person didn't care and was brushing me off and dismissing me, and I was really annoyed, and.

I just thought, well, I'll write to the Queen.

And I told her that, and I could tell she just thought, yeah, whatever, And I was like, Okay, she clearly doesn't know who she's dealing with. And I wrote a letter to the Queen. The sign got fixed. No, I don't think the Queen herself went down and fixed the sign, but she directed. At some point somebody with a position of authority cared that the sign was incorrect. It was the wrong simbol giving poor information, and they fixed the sign and I was invited to be on

Not just the Queen.

I mean I went to Prime Minister Dough, I went to then Vice President of Ecuador who later become became the President of Ecuador.

I have gone to the Vatican, you know, the Pope.

I have gone to every person, because it is just you know, I have a lot to do and it's just efficient.

It sounds funny but.

It works and I'm not surprised, But how do you do it in practical terms? Like how do you even does the Queen have an email? How do you get her email address or any of these people?

Well, you know, it is really funny. So years ago, I mean I wrote her a hard copy letter. In the Pope, I wrote a hard copy letter.

But I will tell.

You there was one time where someone gave me the Queen's phone number for a housekeeper and I thought they were kidding and I called it and was like, no, it was Buckingham Palace and they were like, how did you get this number? And I'm like, oh my god, I really have the Queen's phone number, you know, with some where within Buckingham powers because it was the wild household head number.

But usually that was just a funny story.

But usually you know, I have to say, in this day and age, thanks to data breaches, everyone's email is on on the internet. Otherwise a good old fashioned letter or somebody else's email, you can track everyone down. You would be really surprised there are many prime minister's email addresses on the internet.

So what like, how would you do that?

Like, let's just say, I said, janis, your job today is to contact Scott Morrison, the Prime Minister of Australia, and you need to contact him directly.

Like what would you do?

Are there specific tools that you use for finding people's email addresses or are there specific words that you enter into a Google search?

Yeah, I saw, I put Scott Morrison.

I'm doing it as worth speaking email it into I don't know, like so I put in Scott Morrison email into the search bar and then one of the deep things that.

Oh here it is no like, no joke, it is right here. Oh this is great.

I will be emailing him because here we go. I'm going to send him an email. But there's a whole government online directory for the Australian government with his email address. It's not even that hard. I mean that was what.

Second you have detailed how this going straight to the top strategy works with regards to Donald Trump and celebrity Apprentice back several years ago.

So what was the story there.

That's another funny story. They're all like, really funny.

So Donald Trump's Apprentice was before he became president. The show was the capture were spelled incorrectly, and for example, Bordeaux, the region of France, was spelt like two animals, a bore and a dole. And my daughter at the time was in high school or maybe junior high school, I don't remember what year was, and she was learning poor spelling, and when you have a hearing loss, it's already hard enough, and I didn't want her learning poor spelling.

Now, Donald Trump's son.

A daughter, Ivanka, went to the same private girls school as my daughter, although she left or was reportedly asked to leave. That's subject to many rumors, but nonetheless I thought I would reach out as a parent from the school. Donald Trump's assistant Rona, her daughter went to the school, and I thought I would be able to reach out, and so I reached out to the office, spoke to them,

In fact, the woman who was.

In charge of overseeing the captions told me I was stressing her out, she was too busy.

She was a single mother.

I explained to her, I was a single mother, and I didn't really understand what being a single mother had to do with accurate spelled captions. So right, like, that's not an excuse to do a bad job, It's just not and.

So I was rediculous.

I happened to be reading an article about Bob Wright and I saw in the article that he had started Autism Speaks because he has a grandson with autism. So for me, that's the type of information I look for. So I didn't hadn't even gotten to the point of doing the Google search and looking for people in this case.

I stumbled across the article.

And Bob Brott was then chairman of Nbasay is that right?

I believe that that was it?

If the CEO of the President, I'm not your exactest title at this point, and so I reached out to him again using my way of getting people's phone numbers, and I never spoke to him.

I spoke to his assistant.

But the next thing I knew, somebody contacted me and he said, we're setting up a team and we'd like you to help us solve this problem. Because they did, and they said they you know, I don't remember the exact order, but basically, they reviewed at some point to the captions.

They were.

Shocked to see what was appearing on the screen, and they set up a team. We worked together to figure

And also they were.

Now bidding quality captions against quality captions, like companies with quality captions could now bid because before they were bidding solely based on price. Because also at the time the FCC didn't have standards. They now do this Ultimately, you know, through other decisions and other issues helped NBC's success helped lead the FCC to realize they could implement standards but have gone into there if it wasn't for Bob Bright.

And so in that phone call or that email, that's that is the initial one to that person at the top, how are you, how are you structuring that call or email? Because I imagine there's some credibility building to be done so that they listened to you in the first place.

Well, in that case, I reached out based on as like parents are grandparents care? You know, using the hook of I know you care about your grandchild he has autism. I care about my child who has a hearing loss. Let me explain to you what the problem is and why you should care too. Write from human to human. People who start organizations like that have a strong empathy chip. It's it's much easier to get an issue, and the assistant who worked for him was spectacular and she got

But people need to get it or don't.

And these were working with people with empathy chips who care. Usually if I'm sending an email, I am trying to find some hook that makes them care that there's a reason neither I've done research and I know they care, or I'm finding some reason why they.

Would want to care.

I also have now a list under my name of all the awards I've won, so that also gives me instant credibility and they don't have to research who this person is. I literally, under my signature list the awards I want. I think you've seen that when I respond to you, I do that. It's a very efficient way for people to assess who you are interesting.

So you're using the empathy hook within let's say the body of the email, and then your signature is actually the thing that builds your credibility, as opposed to opening with hey, this is why you should trust me.

Yeah, I don't even tell them why you should trust me. I use my signature as my credibility, and as you've seen, it has hyperlinks to various awards, and the awards are prestigious. I'm also going to be going to Harvard in July.

That's at the top.

When you have a list like that, it builds credibility. But even in the beginning, when I didn't have that, then I would my signature look different. It's evolved over the years, right, it's much stronger now. But I might have, let's say, in an article that quoted me, I would list them under my signature. And as the articles got better, I listed those and governd of the weaker articles. So when the note Your Times profiled me, that was under

You know, even with the awards.

As I win stronger awards, I eliminate the weaker awards because there's a point where it's like just the gene is too long, Right, you don't want to look upnoxious.

We will be back soon with Janis explaining her rules for following up so that she actually gets a response. What frequency is best and through which channel? And if you are looking for more tips to improve the way that you work, I write a short fortnightly newsletter that contains three cool things that I've discovered that helped me work better. You can sign up for that at Howiwork

What was that rule?

Well, he was amazing.

I was looking for his support for an appointment, and I knew he was connected to someone in the White House, and so I reached out to him.

And when I.

Don't receive an I don't expect always to receive a response right away. And it took four responses with him, and when he met me when he said he raised this first. He said, you know, I want you to know the reason I met you is because you follow it up. I have a rule that I usually don't see people or meet with them for at least unless they contact me at least four times, because if it's not worth your time, it's not worth my time to

But he actually told me.

That, and it was one of the most invaluable lessons. I mean it was because I realized other people may be doing this and you know, may not be.

As overt about it.

But he was right, and I actually implemented that rule myself, like, if people want to meet with me, I let them follow up.

I don't because if it's not worth their time, it's not worth my time.

And I am amazed how many people do not follow up. I mean people always ask me my secret sauce for success. I would say ninety nine percent of it is I follow up.

It's that simple.

My mother is to say, you know, it's like tennis and golf, it's only in the follow up.

And what are your rules about following up? Like there are a certain number of times you'll do it? What's your frequency? What does that look like?

Okay, so I have no end.

So and there.

So you know, not everybody is so happy and willing to receive my contact, right. There are some people who are grateful, many people who are grateful, and they're like, oh, well, thank you for telling us that our sign is wrong or that like we could do better. You know, it is really actually interesting to see the differences between.

Companies and their reactions.

Some companies their goal is to always get it right and do better, and you can see that in the way the companies run and the culture of that company.

And then the companies that people have a bad reputation.

You see that in the reaction to my emails, right, it's consistent. So those companies that don't follow up, and they go well past the floor. In fact, sometimes it could go well into the fifties, and I'll start at some point numbering them. And you know, then there are the companies where they just or government agencies they just don't follow up. I mean the Trump's Apprentice was one of them, and I sent them a phone blog. So I maintained something called a phone blog.

Can you tell me about your phone look?

Yes, And it's been written about and it's pretty much in the disability community. It's well known. No, and it's actually funny at this point. So when I start a project, I have a horrible memory, horrible and I can't remember who I spoke to last you know, when you call like the bank and they'll say to you, like, well, who'd you speak to last time when you called, and you're like, really, do you think I possibly remember that? Well,

But in one particular instance was the.

National Parks where I was trying to fix Ellis Island in the National Parks and fix their access for hearing people with hearing loss. And at some point, like with all the emails, the phone calls, the meetings in person, this is presum I had seventeen pages of phonelocks. Wow, now that's insane, and I will tell you it's gotten like worse. And I just sent it again to the new Secretary of Interio and I will now send her

Right? You need data?

So I basically am creating data by sending them a phone law with every person I contacted, a summary of the conversation, who I spoke with, their position, their phone number, the date I spoke, and then what the next follow

Now, with the different documents that you've got for the different phone logs for the different projects, how do you remember when it's time to do another round of follow ups?

I diary things on my calendar, so if I if somebody says, like, let's speak in two weeks, it goes on my calendar in.

Two weeks, and like just as a reminder within your calendar software, or is there another specific strategy that you use for documenting those reminders.

No, it's just in my calendar.

Call National Parks or email Secretary of Interior.

It's not so sophisticated, right, Like I don't have like I keep.

It really simple, like with less of these technology things, because to me is less about the technology and more about spending the time getting things done. Sometimes if you have just too many different tools, it becomes too cumbersome.

Now I know that with your to do list, you don't just keep a to do list like most people do.

What's the other list that you keep?

I also keep a waiting for list but I use this also for my personal issues, you know, like you know, you charge something, you're supposed to get a credit from your credit card, you know, for the return.

I have a department store. Now I'm waiting two weeks for the return to hit.

I have that on my waiting for list, and if it doesn't show up, I've been emailing them and they promised me I was going to receive it, so okay, for at six o'clock in New York, I haven't received it.

They promised me I would have it by five.

There will be another email today where is that credit? And I am surprised how often stores don't follow up on these type of things.

And I think it's become in a pandemic.

World almost like they they this is their new income sources, not processing things.

Because I'm hearing this from other friends. So I use this in my you know, all of these tools.

Are used in my personal life as well as my work life, because I find if you're consistent between personal work, it's easy to remember how to use them.

Absolutely. I like the idea of that.

Like I would imagine though, like with all the communication that you're doing, your inbox must be very busy and I was impressed when we were organizing this interview that you you were very speedy with your responses, which I appreciate it and it makes my life easier. So I'm wondering, how how are you managing your inbox?

So I use colored flags and fileboxes, so I have a file for every single project, right, this goes into the podcast best project.

And then if I'm.

Waiting for some I have like one color for you know, I'm waiting for them to respond, another color. If I'm like in a holding pattern of I need to like I need to do the next step, and then but I'm like it's not quite there yet, That'll be another color.

And then I can have like different colors for specific projects.

It could even be I'm planning a trip, right and I'm trying to keep all of the trip colors, all of the trip emails into That'll be another color, right, so that I could just see everything is grouped together in my inbox. And so if I have something specific where I'm working on, I'll assign a specific color. But for the most part, I'm using red yellow, and then specific projects will get or and then I have another color for like things I want to read that I

Like right before this started, I was doing that.

You know, when you have like that ten minutes where one thing ended in your podcast, let's say, or phone call is about to start. What are you going to do with those tenets? You can go to the bathroom, you go on a Facebook. But instead of doing Facebook, I do those micro projects. Might be paying a bill, it could be reading in an article, but I have those so they're flagged.

So I can easily find them, right and so that'll be flagged within your in books. Or do you also have a specific to do list that's for micro projects?

Now, micro projects don't warant a to do list.

They're like, you know, pay my bill.

You know, let's say, pay my credit card or something, or but I do have that on my calendar and make sure I don't miss a payment, plus remind us with the credit card company. But they're flagged and I just do them as they come up on my micro you know, where I get five minutes, ten minutes here in there, I will do that, but they're all flagged

And so with your flag system and color coding, so aside from color coding by projects, you're color coding by micro projects, the ten to fifteen minute jobs. Are there any other kinds of colors that you have codes for to organize your inbox?

Yep, it's just you know waiting for you know, like this yellow.

It's kind of like a to do sort of to do. And then I have colors based on different projects. Like let's say when I was going to Costa Rica, that was a color. All the emails related to Costa Rica were that color, so I could easily find them. You know, if I'm working in a big document and I'm sending out lots of requests for different information, I will just assign that project to color and this way what I'm working and I can see quickly what's coming in and

Sorting through the entire red inbox.

Oh gosh, I'm so inspired.

Like hearing all your strategies, Jettus, for people that want to read more, consume more of what you're doing, what's the best way for people to do that?

Three places.

My advocacy work is on jazz lins dot com, my consulting work is hearing access dot com, and of course on LinkedIn on Janis Linz amazing.

I will link to all that in the show notes. Janiss. It's been absolutely fascinating hearing your strategies. I am seriously going to be listening to this interview again and taking copious notes about what I'm going to be implementing because I'm feeling very inspired right now. So thank you so much for your time. I love this chat with Janis. She is taking productivity inefficiency to the next level, and

Personally find very useful.

Now, if you are not a subscriber or follower of How I Work, you might want to hit subscribe or follow today, because next week I have got the CEO of meetup dot com, David Siegel, on the show, talking about how he managed working with the leader as chaotic as Adam Newman, co.

Founder of we Work.

We'll be talking about a lot of other things too, such as how David has made some of his biggest decisions. How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support from Dead Set Studios.

The producer for this episode.

Was Liam Riordan, and thank you to Martin Nimber, who does the audio mix for every episode and makes everything sound better than.

It would have otherwise. See you next time.